Operating mechanism for closures



June 1941. G. H. KOHLSAAT OPERATING MECHANISM FOR CLOSURES Filed June14, 1937 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 wkww G. H. KOHLSAAT OPERATING MECHANISM FORCLOSURES June17,'1941.

3 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed June 14, 1937 w my ATTORNEYS 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 j aa /jrwau'ron -4 ATTORNEY$ G. H. KoHLsAAT Filed June 14. 1937 June 17,1941.

OPERATING MECHANISM FOR CLOSURES Patented June 17, 1941 UNET R2,245,985? orERATmGMEonANIsMrFowoLosUREs Geo ges: Khls'aat. De-smet; s.Dak.

Application Jun'e 14',*1937,- Serial' No; 148,237;

' rclaimg (cu ie-#116) This invention relates-to an -operating'mechanism for closures and has for an object toprovide novel mechanismfor opening the doors and releasing live stock from b-arns in theeventoffireand at other times.

A further object is to provide a system-of flexible connectors connectedto the closures, such as the barn doors and doors to box stalls, andarranged so that they may be operated from the dwelling house to openand closethe closures.

A further object is to provide lever mechanism associated with theflexible connectors for rotating tethering rails for'the stanchion'ed'animals, to release the halters of the animals simultaneously with theopening offlthe closures.

A further object is to provideadevice of this character which will beformed of a few strong, simple and durable parts, which will beinexpensive to manufacture, and which will not easilyget. out of order.

With the above and other objects in vlew theinvention; consists ofcertain .4 novel-details of construction and combinations of partsherein-- afterifully described and claimed, it'being understoodthatvarious modifications' may be resorted to within the scope of theappended claim without departing from the spirit or sacrificing any. ofthe advantages of the invention.

In the accompanying drawings forming part of this specification,

Figure 1 is a horizontal sectional view through a barn equipped withlive stock releasing mechanism and'closure operating mechanism con-"structed in accordance with the invention;

Figure 2 is a fragmentary view ofthe" rear wall of the barn showing thearrangement of the closureoperating flexible connectors thereon.

Figure 3 is a fragmentary view'of the front Wall of the barn showing theclosure operating flexible connectors and also the lever mechanisml foroperating the tethering rails.

Figure 4 is a vertical sectional view through the barn taken on the line44 of Figure 1 and showing the tethering rails and a portion of theclosure operating mechanism.

Figure 5 is an enlarged detail of a portion of Fig. 4 showing one of thetethering rails in full lines in operative position and in dotted linesin released position.

Figure 6 is a detail plan view of one of the tethering rails and thering engaged on the pin of the tethering rail.

The invention may be applied either to the inside or the outside or parton the inside and part'on the outside of a barn, and otherplaceswherelive stockis confined.

Referring now to the drawings in which like characters" of referencedesignate similar parts.- in the variousviews, a barn is shown withstalls lllarrang'ed-on opposite sides of a center aisle II, and alongone sidewall of the barn. The stalls have respective mangers l2.

wall of the barn. These parts are conventional.

In carrying out one feature of the inventionv I-provide a rotatabletethering. rail I 5 for each row 'ofstalls l0; pins l5 project radiallyfrom therail andnormally extend upwardly to a position just underneath ashelf ll best shown in Figure 5', the

shelf preventing escape of the tethering rings IB-of'the'tethers H! fromthe pins. When the shaft is rotated axially all of the pins are swung tothe dotted line position and release the rings l8'simultaneously tofreethe animals. The-tethering rails l5 are rotatably mounted in any 'pre--'ferred manner on the end walls of the barn- I and are rotated by leverand flexible connector mechanism hereinafter fullydescribed.

Doors 20 in: the end walls of the barn form exits for the stalls l0 andthese doors are slidably suspended from tracks 2| by eyes 22; Similar--doors-23, see Figure l, afiford access to and exit from the box stallsl4 and these doors also are slidably suspended from tracks 24 bymeans ofeyes 25: All of the doors are simultaneously slidable to open or toclosed position by a sys I temof levers and flexible connectors whichwill now be described.

' A'pair of levers 26 are swingingly mounted at the lower ends on a wallof the barn, see'Figure 3,. and" to accomplish this the levers are fixedto theprojecting ends of the revoluble tethering rails 15 which projectthrough the Wall of the barn.- A link 21 is pivotally connected'at-theends to the upper ends of the levers to .couple the levers together formovement as a unit. A pull flexible connector 28 is connected to one ofthe levers and is trained through a sheave 29 carried by a post 30 andthence is conducted into the dwelling.

A flexible connector 3| is connected to the link 21 and to one of thedoors 20 as shown in Figure 3, and a flexible connector 32 connects bothdoors together. Consequently, when the flexible connector 28 is pulledthe levers will be moved in the direction of the arrowheads in Figure 3,and both of the doors will be slid to open An oat, .bin I3 isi locatedagainst one end wall of the barn' '-and box stalls M are located alongone side- As shown in Figures 5 and 6.

position. At the same time the tethering rails to which the levers 26are attached will be rotated to release the rings of the tethers andfree the animals.

A pull flexible connector 33, see Figure 3, for shutting the doors andresetting the tethering rails after each actuation is conducted from thedwelling to a sheave 34 on the post 30 and is connected to one of thedoors 20. When the pull flexible connector 33 is pulled toward the leftin Figure 3 both doors 20 are simultaneously closed through theinstrumentality of the beforementioned flexible connector 32 whichconnects the doors, and at the same time through the instrumentality ofthe flexible connector 3|.

the link 21 is moved toward the right toinitial position for the nextoperation.

For operating the doors on the opposite end of the barn, shown in Figure2, a flexible connector 35 is connected to the link 21 and trainedthrough an opening 36 in the wall of the barn as shown in Figure 3,thence is trained through guides 31 inside of the barn, as shown inFigures 1 and 4. The flexible connector 35 is connected to the door ofthe nearest box stall M. A flexible connector 38 connects this door withthe door of the next adjacent box stall. A flexible connector 39 isconnected to the last named door and is trained over sheaves 40 at theopposite end of the barn and thence conducted through an opening 4| inthe end wall of the barn, see Figure 2, thence trained through a sheave42 on the outside of the barn and termia nally connected to one of thedoors 20. A flex-v ible connector 43 is terminally connected to thechain 39 inside of the barn and is conducted to the outside of the barnthrough an opening 44,7thence' is trained through a sheave 45 on theoutside of the barn and terminally connected to the other door 29. 7

When the link 21 is moved endwise by a pul upon the release flexibleconnector 28 the flexible connector 35 will be pulled and will slide toopen position both doors of the box stalls and both doors on the rearwall of the barn, simultaneously with the opening of both doors on thefront wall of the barn and live stock releasing movement of thetethering rails.

For resetting the lever and flexible connector mechanism to close thedoors and returnthe tethering rails to operative position, as best shownin Figure 1, the resetting flexible connector 33 is connected to aflexible connector 45 which is trained over sheaves 46 on one of theside walls of the barn and thence is, connected to one of the doors 2%)on the rear wall of, the barn, as best shown in Figure 2. A flexibleconnector 41 is connected tothe chain 45 and is trained over sheaves 48and thence is terminally connected to the other sli ing door as alsoshown in Figure 2.

When the resetting flexible connector 33 is pulled toward the right (inFigure 1), the chain 45 will also be pulled toward the right. The doors20 shown in Figure 2 are moved away from the center of this figure.These doors pull the flexible connector 39 and flexible connector 43,and cause the flexible connector 38 to move toward the left (in Figure1). This causes the flexible connector 35 to move the link 27 to theright (in Figure 3).

By. referring again to Figure 3 it will be seen that a lever 49 is fixedto the projecting end of thetether'rail of the centermost row of stallsand is connected by a flexible connector 50 to the link 21. A lug 5| ofsubstantially V- shape in horizontal cross section projects fromthesideof the link 21. When the link 21 has been moved endwise to doorclosing position by fpull'upon the flexible connector 35, the lug 5| andlever 49 will be in the position shown in full lines in Figure 3 and thelever 49 will ride over the lug when the link 21 moves to the left todoor opening position in Figure 3 and pulls the flexible connector 50 tomove the lever 49. Thus the lug 5| merely acts as a yielding stop. Sincethe operation of the device has been described as the description of theparts progressed it is thought that the invention will be fullyunderstood without further explanation.

What is claimed is:

, Operating mechanism for closures comprising the combination of a barnfor housing livestock, rotatable tethering rails arranged on oppositesides of a center aisle and along one wall of the barn, pins projectingradially from the rails and normally ext-ending upwardly, shelvesarranged j. said openings slidably mounted on the tracks, a

pair of outer upstanding levers fixed respectively to the projecting endof one of the center aisle rails and to the tethering rail along onewall of the barn, an intermediate upstanding lever fixed tothe'projecting end of the other center aisle rail, a link connectingboth outer levers together for movement simultaneously in the samedirection to rotate their respective tethering rails and carry the pinsdownward to release the tethering rings, a flexible connector connectedto said link and to said intermediate lever and adapted to move theintermediate lever simultaneously with and oppositely to the outerlevers to rotate its respective tethering rail to carry the pindownwardly to release the tethering rings, flexible connectorsconnecting the doors to the outer levers for moving the levers as a unitwith the doors, a flexible connector connected to one of the doors formanually closing the doors, and a flexible connector connected to one ofsaid outer levers for manually opening the doors.

GEORGE H. KOHLSAAT.

